Can the Super Bowl champs block Mike Vrabel, he of the three strip-sacks yesterday?

Can they keep sticky-fingered Asante Samuel away from the ball?

Can the Patriots snap a three-game losing streak against Peyton Manning?

Can they block Dwight Freeney? (They couldn't in the AFC final.)

Can they cover Dallas Clark? (See above.)

Most pressing question: Can you believe we have to wait seven days for this game?

Patience, patience.

"That's nothing we can control, having two unbeaten teams," running back Kevin Faulk said of what promises to be an unprecedented buildup. "We'll see them on Sunday."

They'll also see an avalanche of media at Gillette Stadium this week, there to chronicle what Elias Sports Bureau says will be the first-ever meeting of two undefeated teams with at least seven wins each.

History is about to be made.

The Patriots' response? Yawn.

"There will be a lot of hype," said left guard Logan Mankins, who scored a touchdown (fumble recovery in the end zone) in the Pats' 38-34 AFC championship game loss at the RCA Dome in January, "but I'm sure Indy's taking it the same way - just a regular-season game and you do your best to win those games."

Just another game is the official party line, but there was at least one dissenting voice in the post-game locker room.

"As we all know, this week is a different game," said defensive end Richard Seymour, who made his 2007 debut. "It presents some different challenges."

Yesterday's 52-7 ambush of the Redskins was another crashing bore. The Patriots played the bully again, rubbing Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs' face in it by going for it twice on fourth down in the fourth quarter - when they were ahead, 38-0 and then again at 45-0.

The stunner was that they didn't onside kick after the scores.

Classless? Or just ruthless? Your call. We can expect that neither team next week will be running up the score.

With the Colts no longer haunted by their Can't Win the Big One ghosts, the Patriots no longer hamstrung by a so-so receiving corps, the Colts armed with a muscular running game, and the Patriots bolstered by Seymour's return and fueled by the us-against-the-world fire of SpyGate, this looks like - yes, hard to believe - a fair fight.

Nice change of pace, huh?

"I have no idea," linebacker Rosevelt Colvin said when asked if he expected a proverbial barn-burner in his hometown. "A lot of that is for the media and the fans ... the bookies (to predict)."

The Patriots have been installed as 4.5-point favorites, but don't tell them that. In his postgame address to the team, coach Bill Belichick was already hammering home the Colts' 12 straight wins, dating back to last season, and (of course) their status as reigning champs.

"In our mind they're still king of the mountain," fullback Heath Evans declared.

Agreed Rodney Harrison: "They're the best team in football right now until somebody beats them."

While the Patriots have been obliterating their opponents, the Colts have been winning in a low-profile, gritty fashion. They've beaten all three of their division foes on the road, have yet to play a team with a losing record and have joined the 1929-31 Packers as the only teams to open three straight seasons 7-0 or better.

Manning trails Brady in TD passes, 30-13, but he has lit up Pats for 300-plus yards each of last three meetings and has six TDs in that streak.

The Colts have brutalized the Patriots on third down (25-of-42, 59.5 percent) and in the red zone (11-of-18, 61 percent) in those wins, and Manning, naturally, has been the biggest factor. Muffling him, or at least slowing him down, will be Job 1 next Sunday.

"We haven't stopped them," said cornerback Asante Samuel, recalling the horrific AFC title game in which Indy erupted for 32 second-half points to erase a 21-6 deficit at intermission. "Last year in the playoffs we stopped them in the first half and in the second half he did a good job coming back and leading the team to victory."

In fairness, Samuel and fellow corner Ellis Hobbs did a fine job defending Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne outside in the AFC final, but the Colts' tight ends and backs killed the Pats. Harrison sat out yesterday's 31-7 win over the Panthers with a knee injury, but Wayne (seven catches for 168 yards) picked up the slack.

"(The secondary) is going to be a big part of it," Samuel said, "but it's total team defense. Peyton, he's going to test us pretty good. We're going to have to play our 'A' game."

The Patriots played close to that level against Washington, cleaning up their tackling and focus. Those were two big points of emphasis during what Belichick called "our best week of practice that we've had all year, especially defensively."

Nice timing with you-know-you looming on the horizon.

Rodney Harrison said the Patriots weren't sending a message to the Colts, but he acknowledged it was important to tighten up the D.

"That helps build confidence, that helps your overall team chemistry," he said. "Making sure you go out there in the areas that we struggled with - tackling and taking bad angles to the ball - we did a pretty good job of getting that corrected. Hopefully it carries on to next week."

Rodney Harrison missed the AFC title game with a knee injury. If you think that gives him extra motivation for Sunday's rematch, well, he won't say that.

"It's one game, one team," he insisted. "It's not extra special for me."